The background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
Life vests are typically installed under or near each seat of an aircraft to ensure there is at least one life vest for each passenger on board. Before boarding, crew members typically inspect to verify that a life vest is stowed under or near each seat and has not been stolen or otherwise removed. During routine maintenance, each life vest may be removed to check the expiration date; however, these inspections can be labor intensive and costly.
In an effort to increase the efficiency of life vest inspections, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/694,564 to Bartz et al. discloses the use of radio frequency identification (“RFID”) technology and a user interface, which displays inspection information on a screen. RFID tags are installed in/on life vests or their packaging. An airline employee may then move within an aircraft and interrogate the RFID tags row-by-row using an RFID reader. A display shows visual indicia of at least a portion of the aircraft where a life vest is expected to be found. The visual indicia are updated with information read from the RFID tags, such as whether one or more life vests have expired, are about to expire, or are not present. However, Bartz's methods still require an airline employee to move about the cabin to interrogate RFID tags, which have the disadvantages mentioned above. In addition, RFID tags typically require power, increasing the cost of each RFID tag. Ayyagari et al. describe similar methods and systems in U.S. Pat. No. 7,589,636.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,162,776 to Shore et al. describes an aircraft monitoring system in which items, including oxygen generators and life vests are equipped with RFID tags. RFID interrogators are adapted to determine an issue with respect to any of the RFID equipped items and may be integrated into pre-existing systems. Typically, during pre-flight procedures, a flight attendant or other employee walks through the aircraft and uses a RFID interrogator to determine whether any of the RFID equipped items requires service, repair, replacement and/or maintenance. However, Shore's methods still share many or all of the disadvantages described above.
All publications identified herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
Thus, there is still a need for life vest inspection apparatuses, systems, and methods that (1) save time for life vest inspections before passenger boarding, (2) are inexpensive, (3) do not require powering the component installed on the life vest, and (4) do not require an inspector to go to multiple locations within the cabin.